Trio accused in Labour Party donations case continue to seek suppression ahead of trial – صحيفة الصوت

Three people charged in connection to the Labour Party political donations case have argued they should continue to have name suppression.

The trial for the trio and four others was set to start on Monday at the High Court at Auckland, however it will now start on Tuesday.

Yikun Zhang, Shijia (Colin) Zheng, and Hengjia (Joe) Zheng are charged in connection to National Party Donations alongside former National Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross in 2020.

Zhang and the two Zheng’s also face charges alongside the three who currently have name suppression, in relation to election donations made to the Labour Party in 2017.

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The judge-alone trial for both the Labour and National Party case will be heard by Justice Ian Gault. Justice Gault has reserved his decision on name suppression.

On Monday afternoon, Marc Corlett QC acting for one of the men currently with name suppression, said if he was named it would have a devastating impact on his career.

Corlett submitted there would be an irredeemable, negative impact on his reputation and there was a prospect of his client being acquitted.

“This is a Crown case that is thin to the point of vanishing,” Corlett submitted.

Yvonne Mortimer-Wang submitted on behalf of the female defendant, the primary grounds for continued suppression was her client’s health and the effect on her career.

Defence lawyer Sam Lowery, acting on behalf of the other man, said the Crown’s case against his client is narrow and there would be cumulative harm if he was named.

Lowery submitted naming his client would cause undue hardship to the man’s wife and her business.

Robert Stewart acting on behalf of Stuff, NZME and RNZ, submitted the trio did not meet the threshold for experiencing extreme hardship if they were named.

Stewart submitted the trial was about the integrity of political donations and the identity of donations and the names of the three defendants mattered.

Paul Wicks QC, acting on behalf of the Crown, again opposed continued suppression saying there was legitimate public interest in the process of political donations and open justice should prevail.

Ron Mansfield QC acting on behalf of Ross said it was unfair for the defendants who don’t have suppression and there might be a greater focus on them.

The charges

The six people connected to the Labour Party donations are charged with obtaining at least $34,840, by deception, made to the political party on or about March 28, 2017.

Court documents released to Stuff show Zhang, Zheng, Zheng and another two men and a woman have been charged with adopting a fraudulent device or trick that allowed the donation to be paid via an intermediary bank account before being paid to, and retained by, the Labour Party.

Five names were provided to create the illusion the donations were for sums of less than $15,000, in order to conceal the full amount and the identity of the donors, the documents allege.

The National Party charges, relating to Ross, Zhang and the two Zheng brothers, allege two $100,000 donations to the National Party were broken up into smaller chunks to get under the disclosure threshold.

Charging documents allege that between May 2017 and May 2018, the defendants obtained a $100,000 donation for the National Party in June 2017.

Again, it is alleged that the donation was split into amounts of under $15,000 and transferred into the bank accounts of seven different people, before being paid to party.

The defendants are also charged over a donation of $100,050 made in 2018, which was allegedly split into the bank accounts of seven different people.